Christina Vasa (Ludovika of Bavaria)

Christina Vasa (3 July 1746 – 21 August 1813) was the first empress consort and suo juro Queen of the Kingdom of Vasa of Kejsare Gustav III of Sweden from their marriage on 1 October 1766 until her death in 21 August 1813, in an successful assassination attack. Originally Princess Ludovika of Bavaria and the Holy Roman Empire by birth, she adopted the name "Christina" with the surname of "Vasa" when she married into the Swedish royal family. She and three of her children [two of them boys one a girl] were all killed on the road to Munich to visit her parents and siblings for Christmas in 1813. Her brutal assassination which ultimately led to her death and that of three of her beloved children, deeply devastated her husband, her parents and her older siblings - her widower waited for several years [decades really] to marry his second wife Sophia Magdalena of Denmark.

A favorite daughter-in-law of Louisa Ulrika of Prussia, Christina was, like her mother-in-law, a well-educated woman and enjoyed conducting scientific projects with her mother-in-law. Unknowingly to her parents, Christina was one of the first royals [in either modern European or ancient history] with the disease known as haemophilia referred to as the "bleeding disease". Ironically, it was Christinan who was the modern "progenitor" of the disease, through her bloodline: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom received the disease. Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna [the former Princess Alix of Hesse and Rhine] also inherited the disease from Ludovika's bloodline. She was later canonized by the Church of Sweden as Saint Christina the Pacifist in 1945 during the era of the Third Swedish Empire, during the reign of Alix of Sweden's father Emperor Allister. Her reputation for encouraging the arts and sciences helped to endear her to many.

Background
Christine Vasa was born in Munich at Nymphenburg Palace as the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII and his wife Maria Amalia of Austria.